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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

One of the things I love teaching my kids about in Home Ec is that you can have delicious, decadent and even exotic food at home for less money and time than a restaurant. While the majority of their parents cook at least some meals at home, a lot of the time the food is your standard "in a rush, feed the kids what they like" fare. I like to take my hour of time each week to challenge them, even in a small way, to think of food outside the supermarket "box".

This week we made French toast - one of the simplest and cheapest things you can make for any meal of the day. It's also one of the fastest and most variable dishes I know of, and one I learned very early on at my mother's hop. Of course, over the years I've learned a few tricks and tips along the way to jazz up my version - thoroughly drying out the bread (to a "crouton" texture) so that it soaks up the maximum amount of custard possible is my standard practice now, because it makes even whole grain bread (like what I used today) a perfect base. By adding just a smidge of sugar along with vanilla and nutmeg to the eggs and whole milk, and whisking in my most recent "secret ingredient" - a scoop of custard powder - turns everything into a decadent, creamy sop for the bread and cooks to a crisp exterior while maintaining that "bread pudding" mouthfeel inside.

Finally, there's the topping. While maple syrup is perfectly acceptable (and wholly supported by me, especially when the dark, grade B version is available), I opted to take my French toast to New Orleans and go a Bananas Foster route. A whack of butter, brown sugar and bananas caramelized slowly before finishing with more vanilla and a touch of lemon juice, making a perfect topping for the Pain Perdu as well as a crepe filling and crown for an open-face peanut butter and banana sandwich. The dregs of banana that were left after 3 days of cooking (the photo showed the batch I made for 30 kids, with 12 bananas!), I pureed into luxurious banana "butter" and baked into some of the richest banana bread I've ever made - Heaven!